Bus driver made ‘mistake’, says firm

THE company that employs a school bus driver who was allegedly caught using his mobile phone while transporting children has called the incident a “mistake”.

The driver was suspended by Oxfordshire County Council last week for holding his phone while driving on the A4074 two weeks ago when carrying children from Langtree School in Woodcote.

George Slack, 12, a year 8 pupil at the school, photographed him on the advice of his father, Damian, a horse transporter from Ipsden.

Mr Slack, 53, published the photographs on a Woodcote community Facebook page as a “last resort” after receiving no response from the operating company, Sprinters Travel.

He said: “George kept saying, ‘The driver is on his phone’ so I said to take a picture and within the next couple of days he did.

“I had already rung the company and informed them of this.”

The images depict the driver holding his phone in his right hand while on an active “emergency” call.

The minibus dashboard had an oil level warning light.

Rubina Kosar, an assistant manager at Sprinters Travel in High Wycombe, said: “Our company has been running for the last 18 years and we’ve got a very good reputation.

“All of the drivers know the standards and the rules. They’ve been driving for years. They’re not supposed to use their phone while driving.

“This driver said it was an emergency call but when they’re driving, even if it’s an emergency, they should stop, park the vehicle on a safe side and then answer.

“They should not be answering the phone call while driving and the drivers know that.

“As you can see from the picture of the phone, it was an emergency call and he made a mistake. He should have parked and taken the call and said to the kids, ‘This is an emergency, I need to take this call’.

“It’s not a driver who we’ve employed recently, he has been working with us for the last 12 to 14 years. We’ve never had any complaints against him; he’s a very good driver We will have a full conversation with him.”

A council spokesman said: “The incident was reported to us by Langtree School.  We take the safeguarding of all children using home-to-school transport extremely seriously. The driver has been suspended from our home-to-school transport contract while the matter is investigated.”